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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Blaspheming Christ At Christmas

As midtown Manhattan comes alive with the signs of Christmas--- window displays, Salvation Army bell-ringers and millions of people from all across the world flow through Times Square, an atheist group has placed a message for the masses.

"Keep The Merry!" "Dump The Myth!"

A message regarding Santa Clause and Jesus Christ.

The sign is a large picture of Santa Clause above another image of Jesus Christ on the cross.

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, who is responsible for the sign, explained to FOX News, "Most Christians are really atheists who feel trapped in their family's religion. They need not be Christian to enjoy the holiday season."

Teresa MacBain, a former pastor who is now communications director for American Atheists told media, “The true beauty of the season – family, friends, and love – have nothing to do with the gods of yesteryear. Indeed, the season is far more enjoyable without the religious baggage of guilt and judgmentalism. Dump the myth and have a happy holiday season.”

Bill Donohue, with the Catholic League said, "This is vile. When you depict Jesus on the cross with a crown of thorns, this is exploitative. We as Christians never harass, intimidate or insult atheists. But they can't seem to say, 'We simply disagree with you.' They have to insult us."

Indeed, it is insulting.

And it hurts the heart of every true follower of Jesus Christ.Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.

18 comments:

Although, it does bring up an important issue. The primary exposure for many non-christians and nominal christians to christianity isn't the Bible, but rather Christmas and Easter. They may even have attended church on Christmas and Easter in the past. Yet, Christmas and Easter are both holidays which were taken from the pagan solstice holidays. Even in the early centuries, many Christians were resistant to celebrating them, on the reason that they had just escaped bondage to the world - so why should they return to celebrating the same pagan days under a different name?

The problem is, by presenting Easter and Christmas as such 'God approved' days (while modern evangelism shies away from scripture or anything 'offensive), then christians reduce Christianity to the level of a myth. It's like saying "Please believe this is true - but I am going to start out by telling you something you know is a lie".

We can expect athiests to mock Christ - Christ said they would. What is worse is when *Christians* mock Christ. Christmas and Easter are like saying "I love you" to your husband by celebrating His birthday on your ex-husbands birthday, with your ex-husbands favorte treats, wearing your ex-husbands favorite clothes, etc. Is it any wonder that non-christians look at christmas and easter, days that the pagans have celebrated for countless millenia, and they then think the whole of christianity is a myth because of the lie that christians themselves brought in?

"By us who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar...Oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians" -Tertullian, 2nd century

"For, even if they had known them, they would not have shared the Lord's Day or Pentecost with us. For they would fear lest they would appear to be Christians. Yet, we are not apprehensive that we might appear to be pagans!" -Tertullian

We are supposed to be set apart from the world. Even the unbelievers know something is amiss when we are acting exactly like them and claiming God's stamp of approval is on it. There will always be scorners, and mockers, and blasphemers - but if God is blasphemed because the church is holding onto a lie merely for the sake of tradition, rather than worshipping God in spirit and in truth, then the church is to blame as well. If Christmas is an idol to the church and a stumbling block to unbelievers, it has no place alongside the Word of Truth.

Which is precisely the intent. These people have no positive message, nothing to actually offer. Their sole purpose is to give the finger to a billion people who never did them any harm, simply because they fancy themselves superior to us.

Our Constitution was created for christains by christains. It is our duty as christains to set up Gods goverment through out the whole world. There is freedom in christ Jesus.And in no other. non belivers have more freedom under Gods goverment then any other goverment. Our founding fathers gave us a republic under God. let's keep it one nation under God. The voice

From Grants Pass - isn't this enough for Christians to become more bolder in their faith? The Christian Camp has been kicked around enough by the atheists, spiritualist, occultist, etc. I have seen deplorable comments on blogs and articles of every Christian writer including myself, for making a stand of what we believe and why. It is time for unprecidented boldness clothed in the love of the Saviour to denounce these ill-mannered folks.

This "we mind our own business" response from Bill Donahue is ripe, considering the Catholic League, local Catholic bishops, and the Catholic hierarchy have spent millions in an attempt to force gay people to navigate life without marriage. Why? Because they believe it's OK to force their religious values on everyone.

Donahue also compared same-sex marriages to racism, genocide and slavery last month.

Why can't Donahue take his own advice and say, "we simply disagree with you," skip the insults, and let everyone choose their own religious values while the government treats us all equally? After all, most Catholics now support marriage for same-sex couples.

I'm sorry, Bill, that you have to look at a billboard that offends you, but I've had to forgo marriage for nearly two decades because of your insistence that everyone live by your values.

I'm sorry, but the "concept" is being forced on you? What does that even mean? No one is forcing you to marry a person of the same gender. If you don't like that "concept," there's no law that dictates you have to do it. Same with interracial marriage. Or eating meat. Or playing poker.

On the other hand, just because you don't like a "concept" like gay marriage does not mean that gay people should have to forego marriage so you don't have to see it.

It blows me away how blatant so-called "Christians" are about insisting they are not somehow "free" if others are not forced legally to live by their values.

Although, it does bring up an important issue. The primary exposure for many non-christians and nominal christians to christianity isn't the Bible, but rather Christmas and Easter. They may even have attended church on Christmas and Easter in the past. Yet, Christmas and Easter are both holidays which were taken from the pagan solstice holidays. Even in the early centuries, many Christians were resistant to celebrating them, on the reason that they had just escaped bondage to the world - so why should they return to celebrating the same pagan days under a different name?

The problem is, by presenting Easter and Christmas as such 'God approved' days (while modern evangelism shies away from scripture or anything 'offensive), then christians reduce Christianity to the level of a myth. It's like saying "Please believe this is true - but I am going to start out by telling you something you know is a lie".

We can expect athiests to mock Christ - Christ said they would. What is worse is when *Christians* mock Christ. Christmas and Easter are like saying "I love you" to your husband by celebrating His birthday on your ex-husbands birthday, with your ex-husbands favorte treats, wearing your ex-husbands favorite clothes, etc. Is it any wonder that non-christians look at christmas and easter, days that the pagans have celebrated for countless millenia, and they then think the whole of christianity is a myth because of the lie that christians themselves brought in?

"By us who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar...Oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians" -Tertullian, 2nd century

"For, even if they had known them, they would not have shared the Lord's Day or Pentecost with us. For they would fear lest they would appear to be Christians. Yet, we are not apprehensive that we might appear to be pagans!" -Tertullian

We are supposed to be set apart from the world. Even the unbelievers know something is amiss when we are acting exactly like them and claiming God's stamp of approval is on it. There will always be scorners, and mockers, and blasphemers - but if God is blasphemed because the church is holding onto a lie merely for the sake of tradition, rather than worshipping God in spirit and in truth, then the church is to blame as well. If Christmas is an idol to the church and a stumbling block to unbelievers, it has no place alongside the Word of Truth.

Tertulian was a wise man and you make a number of valid points. However, the issue isn't the date but the reason for celebration, which has been perverted by commercialism. Lip service is given to the birth of Christ while we shop till we drop, fight over the latest 'thing' that we just have to have, get DUI's, that's the blasphemy.

There's no such thing as a nominal Christian, either you're all in or you're out.

I know why the 25th was chosen as I'm sure you know as well, but I'm unaware of any denomination that claims that Jesus was actually born on Dec. 25. The Bible is silent on this.

Atheists don't care what day he was born on, they would complain regardless if we celebrated on March 4 or Sept. 17. Their stumbling block is Christ crucified as they made plain in the ad. 1Cor 1:18 states that the "message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing". Our church celebrates Resurrection Sunday, no easter anything.

Rom 14:5-6 "one man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord....." That's the point, celebrate as you said, in spirit and in truth.

Remember, Jesus said 'blessed are those who aren't offended because of me'.

Thank you for being ever so bold to expose Easter and Christmas for what they are - PAGEAN HOLIDAYS. No where in Scripture are we ever admonished to take something pagean and convert it into something Christian. Scripture says, "What fellowship has light with darkness?" The example I often use is when you put dirty what in a glass of clean water, the clean water becomes dirty. However when you put clean water in a glass of dirty water, the water in the glass is still dirty. So you can't take a pagean holiday and add something "clean" to it and expect it to suddenly be "clean." Christians are told in Scripture to celebrate Christ's death, not his birth. Because of Christmas, people often only see Jesus as this baby in the manager instead of the Risen Savior that He is. So while I don't celebrate Christmas, I do struggle with whether to say "Merry Christmas" vs "Happy Holidays" since I don't want to in any way identify with the non-believers. Any ideas?

Clearly, you don't know what the word 'Christ' means, it's the Greek translation of the Hebrew word messiah. Jesus' resurrection is the most thoroughly documented event in history, over 500 people saw him in Jerusalem after his crucifiction. The Apostles, who ran away when he was arrested, suddenly proclaimed his resurrection in the face of ridicule and threat of death. None became rich or famous doing this, all but John were executed for proclaiming the good mews.

Even the Pharisees couldn't dispute the miracles he performed. Why not? Because they were true and the people had seen them.